Overview / 简介: |
The Printz Award–winning classic gets a new look.
The Watson family moves to Stoneygate, an old coal-mining town, to care for Kit’s recently widowed grandfather. When Kit meets John Askew, another boy whose family has both worked and died in the mines, Askew invites Kit to join him in playing a game called Death. As Kit’s grandfather tells him stories of the mine’s past and the history of the Watson family, Askew takes Kit into the mines, where the boys look to find the childhood ghosts of their long-gone ancestors. Written in haunting, lyrical prose, Kit’s Wilderness examines the bonds of family from one generation to the next, and explores how meaning and beauty can be revealed from the depths of darkness.
A Michael L. Printz Award Winner
An ALA Notable Book
A Publishers Weekly Best Book
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From Organization / 国外机构评价: |
| Revisiting many of the themes from Skellig, Almond offers another tantalizing blend of human drama, surrealism and allegory. He opens the novel with a triumphant scene, in which Kit Watson, the 13-year-old narrator, and his classmates, John Askew and Allie Keenan reemerge from "ancient darkness into a shining valley," as if to reassure readers throughout the course of the cryptic tale that the game of "Death," so central to the book, is indeed just a game. Nevertheless, he takes readers on a thrilling and spine-tingling ride. When Kit moves with his mother and father to the mining town of Stoneygate to keep company with his newly widowed grandfather, he feels drawn to John Askew who, like Kit, comes from a long line of coal miners. Askew presses Kit to take part in a game of "Death," for which the participants spin a knife to determine whose turn it is to "die." The chosen one then remains alone in the darkness of Askew's den, to join spirits with boys killed in a coal mine accident in 1821. Some regular players consider the game to be make-believe, but Kit senses something far more profound and dangerous, and the connection he forges with the ancient past also circuitously seals a deeper bond with Askew. Allie acts as a bridge between the two worlds, much as Mina was for Michael in Skellig. The ability that Askew, Kit and his grandpa possess to pass between two seductive worlds, here and beyond, in many ways expands on the landscape Almond created in Skellig. The intricacy and complexity of the book's darker themes make it a more challenging read than his previous novel for children, but the structure is as awe-inspiring as the ancient mining tunnels that run beneath Stoneygate. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) |
Foreign Customer Review / 国外客户评价: |
| Like Richard Cormier's books, this "Young Adult" novel is not just for those under 20.
Nothing is black and white, everything is poetic, mysterious and slightly cloudy in this original, enticing novel by David Almond.
The opening chapters look morbid - Kit is new to the community where his ailing granddad grew up, a mining town in England. He's reluctantly drawn into a group led by the dark and sinister John Askew, the son of the town alcoholic. These kids play a game called "Death" - Askew holds a knife to the one chosen in a spin-the-bottle selection, and takes them into the deep dark mine and leaves them there. The Dead One emerges moments or hours later, claiming to have been truly dead.
I got that far and thought this book wasn't for me - surely something evil was going to happen to Kit who was drawn both to Askew and the game.
I pushed on, and was greatly rewarded. Kit struggles with his wish to believe that no matter what others may say about someone, there is a goodness within all, waiting to be recognized and invited out. He expresses this through a story within-the-story, that ties in with Askew's disappearance, his own grandfather's preparation for dying (wonderfully handled) and his shadowy visions of many children - one special one named Silky - who died years ago in the mines.
Although I saw this somewhere referred to as like Harry Potter, I'd have to say it's not - the audience for this book is looking for more substance than entertainment (and I LOVE Harry Potter books). |
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